Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird questions

[Fred Stluka <fred@bristle.com>]

Alan,

Sorry for the delay.  Life happens...

> 1.  How does one exit TB?  I have up to now simply clicked on the 'x' 
> in the upper RH
> corner.  I have read that there is a screen with the typical 'File' as 
> the first item on
> the command line(my TB doesn't have any such thing) and from there one 
> can exit a bit
> more graciously.  What do you experts do?
I've used TB on Mac for the past 9 years.  Before that on Windows.

On Mac, you can exit via any of the standard Mac techniques:
- Cmd-Q
- Click red button at top left of window
- Menu: Thunderbird | Quit Thunderbird

On Windows, you can exit via any of the standard Windows techniques:
- Alt-F4
- Click 'X' at top right of window (as you said)
- Menu: File | Exit (or something like that)


> 2.  I am accustomed to having arrows or other indications to go back, 
> or forward, one
> or more pages.  I can't find such with TB.
When paging through a single email, use the standard Mac or
Windows techniques to scroll/page through a long message.
Mac:
- fn-Up/Down (page)
- Arrow keys (scroll)
- Scroll bar or mouse wheel
- etc.
Windows:
- PgUp/PgDn keys (page)
- Arrow keys (scroll)
- Scroll bar or mouse wheel
- etc.

Also, in both environments, you can use the space bar to page
through a long message, which is a common technique used in
many mail/newsreader programs since 1982 or earlier.  I used
it on VAX Mail, Lotus Notes, and others.

To go backward/forward through the list of messages, use the
exact same techniques as above, but when viewing the list, not
when viewing a single message body.  Or at least when the
mouse or keyboard focus is in the window or window pane
where the list of messages is shown, instead of the one where
the message body a shown.

You can also go forward/back with the keys f and b.

For more shortcut keys, see:
- http://bristle.com/Tips/Thunderbird/Keyboard.txt


> 3.  I'll try to figure out on my own how to download stuff, and how to 
> sync up what is
> on his.com with what is . . . where?  Can I prescribe the directory 
> I'd like my downloaded
> mail to be put in?  I have a Mail directory, with lots of files in 
> mbox format.  Is that
> what TB will do?
You can choose to have TB use mbox format (one disk file per
mail folder, with multiple messages per file) or maildir format
(one disk folder per mail folder, with one message per file).
See:
- 
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+set+thunderbird+to+mbox+or+maildir+format

TB has a default location for where to put its files, but you can
change that.  On Mac, it's:
- ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles
On Windows, it's probably something like:
- %appdata%\Thunderbird\Profiles

In either case, there's a file one level up (in the Thunderbird folder)
called "profiles.ini".  It's a plain text file that you can edit to specify
a different location for the profiles.  For example, I changed mine
from:

> [General]
> StartWithLastProfile=1
>
> [Profile0]
> Name=default
> IsRelative=1
> Path=Profiles/some_random_string

to:

> [General]
> StartWithLastProfile=1
>
> [Profile0]
> Name=default
> IsRelative=0
> Path=/Users/fred/fred/Mozilla/TBird/Profile
Also, in either case, all of the TB files (address book, messages, 
profile.ini,
prefs.js, etc. are platform-independent, mostly just plain ASCII or Unicode
files.  So, you can copy them from Windows to Mac and they'll work just
fine.  Can also edit them with any text editor to change messages, mark
them as not deleted after all, etc.

In mbox format, each mail folder is a disk file that holds one or more
messages.  But there's also a binary *.msf file for each folder that
caches the mail headers, subject lines, etc. and all of your layout and
detail choices, like whether to show conversations threaded, which
column headers to show and in what order/width, what sort order
the messages are displayed in, etc.  If there's ever a problem, just
delete the *.msf file and it will be re-created automatically from the
mbox file for that folder the next time it's needed.

There's also a single binary index file for all folders, to speed up
searches.  It's called global-messages-db.sqlite.  Again, if there's
a problem, just delete it, and it will be recreated as needed.

There are various other plain text files:
- popstate.dat
   -- Record of which messages have been downloaded from the
       server, deleted from the server, etc.
- msgFilterRules.dat
   -- The filter rules you've defined for incoming messages.  Be
        careful, but yes, I edit mine directly all the time. Whenever,
        I want to create a bunch of new filters at once, or create a
        new one from an old one.
- filterlog.html
   -- The log of which messages have been filtered by which
        actions defined in which filters.  By default filter logging
        is off, so this is typically empty.


> I'll have lots of questions about the editor that TB provides for me.  
> I'd love to make it
> as emacs-y as possible.  And can one use diacritical marks? the German 
> Umlaut, the French
> accent acent agui and accent grave, the various Spanish markings? 
> That's just a start<g>!
I'm not sure how customizable the message editing keys are.

But yes, you are composing in Unicode not ASCII for plain text
messages, and in full HTML for HTML messages.  So all things
are possible.

Hope this helps!
--Fred
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred Stluka -- Bristle Software, Inc. -- http://bristle.com
#DontBeATrump -- Make America Honorable Again!
Register online to Vote: http://bristle.com/Vote
------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 9/25/18 7:59 PM, Alan McConnell wrote:
> I've got thunderbird(henceforth TB) working, to the point that I can read my E-mail
> at my gmail account, and at my account on his.com.  But I've got lots of work to do,
> and I'm grateful to the two Plug gentleman who have offered to field my questions.
> Here is a first installment of questions:
>
> 1.  How does one exit TB?  I have up to now simply clicked on the 'x' in the upper RH
> corner.  I have read that there is a screen with the typical 'File' as the first item on
> the command line(my TB doesn't have any such thing) and from there one can exit a bit
> more graciously.  What do you experts do?
>
> 2.  I am accustomed to having arrows or other indications to go back, or forward, one
> or more pages.  I can't find such with TB.
>
> 3.  I'll try to figure out on my own how to download stuff, and how to sync up what is
> on his.com with what is . . . where?  Can I prescribe the directory I'd like my downloaded
> mail to be put in?  I have a Mail directory, with lots of files in mbox format.  Is that
> what TB will do?
>
> I'll have lots of questions about the editor that TB provides for me.  I'd love to make it
> as emacs-y as possible.  And can one use diacritical marks? the German Umlaut, the French
> accent acent agui and accent grave, the various Spanish markings?  That's just a start<g>!
>
> TIA,
>
> Alan
> ___________________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________________
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Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
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